WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND Balancing Your Personal Life - Part 2 of 6 Selected 1 Cor. 14:20b "... in your thinking be adults.

" 1 Peter 1:13 "Prepare your minds for action; be self- controlled" How to Stay Mentally Fit I. _____________________________________________ 2 Cor. 10:5 "... take captive every thought, to make it obedient to Christ."

4 kinds of material * ______________________________ Rom. 16:19, Psalm 101:3

* ______________________________ 1 Cor. 10:23

* ______________________________ Phil. 4:7-8

* ______________________________ Psalm 119:11, Joshua 1:8

II. _____________________________________________ Proverbs 19:8 (Additional references: Prov. 4:5-13, Prov. 16:16)

3 Essential Attitudes 1. ______________________________ Prov. 18:15

2. ______________________________ Prov. 11:2

3. ______________________________ Colossians 3:23

III. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS 1. _____________________________________________ 1 Thess. 4:11

2. _____________________________________________ 2 Timothy 4:13

3. _____________________________________________ Proverbs 13:20

4. _____________________________________________ Proverbs 20:5

5. _____________________________________________ Hebrews 2:1

6. _____________________________________________ Ephesians 5:15-16

WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND Introduction: Today we're going to look at What's On Your Mind? How to stay mentally fit.

1 Peter 1:13-Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; (1Pe 1:13 KJV). He's talking about being mentally fit. Our mind can store about a hundred trillion facts and yet most of us only think about ten thousand thoughts a day. That's about three and a half million a year and we only use about ten percent of our minds ever. Our mind is a special gift from God. (Commercial: "A mind is a terrible thing to waste.") This morning we're going to look at how you stay mentally fit so that you're alert and bright and all of your life you make the most of this gift that God has given to you -- your mind.

1. GUARD THE ACCESS TO YOUR MIND Be choosy. Control what you allow in. Be discriminating. Don't just allow anything and everything to filter into your mind. A lot of people have what I call a Freeway Mind. Everything just goes right through it -- a book, an idea -- no thought as to whether it's good for you or not.

I read a book one time called Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind. It's about how advertisers compete for your attention. Whether you realize it or not, everybody wants to get your attention. As they say in the computer industry: Garbage in, Garbage out. What you put into your mind is what is going to come out of your life. "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." Guard the access to your mind. 2 Corinthians 10:5 "Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." Guard your mind, be disciplined in the way that you think. Four kinds of material that you can fill your mind with. 1. Poison. Poison is stuff like pornography, the occult, trashy novels, things that blaspheme God, anything that is bad for your mind. Paul says in Romans 16:19 "I want you to be wise concerning that which is good. But I want you to be innocent concerning evil." Not to know evil by experience but by the word of God. In Psalms 101:3, David said "I will set no vile thing before my eyes." It's a promise he made to himself. I'm not going to look at anything that is bad and unhealthy for me. A lot of people need that verse on their TV. I read this week that the average television is now on seven hours and seven minutes a day in the average home. If you're an average American, you watch about 1000 hours of TV a year. That means if you live to be 65, you will amass nine and a half solid years of TV viewing. Parents no longer teach values, the television teaches values. Nine and a half solid years of TV viewing. If you went to Bible study -- Sunday School -- every Sunday of your life from day 0 to day 65 that would only equal four and a half months of Bible teaching. Four and a half months of Bible study compared to nine and a half years of television. Poison.

2. Stuffing. Stuffing is simply stuff. It's neither good nor bad. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:23 "All things are lawful but not all things edify." He's saying that some things are not necessarily wrong, they're just not necessary. A lot of books, movies, TV shows are just stuffing. They're not harmful, they're just "there". 3. Brain food. These are things that inspire you, teach you, help you grow, teach you a skill, make you a better person. Paul says in Philippians 4:7-8 "Things that are true and just and honest, think on those kind of things." Things that build you up rather than tear you down. 4. The Bible. The word of God. David said, "Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." It keeps us on the right track. Joshua 1:8 -- that promise of success. Joshua says, if you'll do one thing you'll be prosperous and successful, if you'll meditate and memorize and study the word of God, fill your mind with it. You have to realize that you have to decide what you're going to fill your mind with because it's going to come out of your life. How much will you allow on tv before you change the channels? At what point do you become righteously indignant and get up and say "I've had enough" and turn the channel? Some people would never turn the channel, not for any reason at all. It doesn't matter what's happening, what the scene is they would never change it. They're allowing that to go into their mind. You need to guard the access to your mind.

2. NEVER STOP LEARNING If you want to be a mentally fit person for the rest of your life, you never stop learning. This week there was a graduation right here in this gymnasium. There were graduations all over America. Do you remember the feeling you felt the day you walked across the stage and graduated from either high school or college? I remember. I walked across the stage, grabbed my diploma, walked off the stage, threw away my hat and the thought that went through my mind was "I have completed my education." Little did I know. If that's your attitude, if you think you've completed your education when you got your diploma, there's no way you can live in today's world and ever complete your education. Life is a learning process. It is an ongoing thing.

Proverbs 19:8 "He who loves wisdom, loves his own soul." If you are continually growing and learning and developing, you're doing the best thing you can for yourself. You love yourself. That's proof of it. The fact that you want to learn means that you love your own soul. The problem is if you're not learning, you're not living. Scientists say that about the time we reach our midthirties, we stop acquiring new skills. When was the last time you learned a new skill, a new truth, a new thought, a new attitude? It's sad to see people who stopped thinking ten or fifteen years ago. They become a vegetable and start growing duller and duller. Never stop learning. What does this have to do with being a Christian? Being a Christian means a life long learning process. We talk about the term disciple. The word "disciple" literally means "learner". If you're not learning, you're not a disciple. Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me." You never stop learning. You're continually growing, expanding, developing, learning new insights. If you're going to stay sharp for the rest of your life mentally you need three attitudes. 1. You need the attitude of openness. Proverbs 18:15 (Living Bible) "The intelligent man is always open to new ideas, in fact, he looks for them." A sign of intelligence is intelligent people look for new ideas. They're open to them. Who can you learn from? Can you learn from somebody who's younger than you are? Can you learn from somebody who's less educated than you are? Can you learn from somebody who's a different nationality? Are you open? Can you learn from somebody who's of a different religion? Being open is the key. Openness to say "I can learn from anybody, any place, any time," will keep you mentally fit for the rest of your life. You can learn from anybody, I've discovered, if you just know the right questions. Openness is a problem as we get older. I found in a book, "Sixty excuses for a closed mind." We tried that before. Our place is different. It cost too much. We don't have the time. We've never done it that way before. It's against company policy. That's not our problem. You're right, but... We're not ready for that. It isn't in the budget. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. Let's form a committee. Let's sleep on it. It's too much trouble to change. It's impossible. We've always done it that way. Excuses for a closed mind. Learn from anybody. Be open. 2. A second attitude you need is humility. Proverbs 11:2 "When pride comes then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." If you want to be mentally sharp, you have to have a humble attitude that says, "I don't know it all." One of the major roadblocks to learning is this attitude of "I've got it all together. I already know it all." Pride is a stumbling block to learning.

Winston Churchill said, "I love to learn but I hate to be taught." Ego gets in the way. I love to learn if I don't have somebody pretending like they know more than I do. When my son Joshua was young, his number one response to any situation was always, "Why?" Everything that happened, Why? Do you know why children learn so much? They're not afraid to ask questions. They're humble. They know they don't know it all, so they're inquisitive. They're alert. They love to learn. Jesus said, "Unless you become as children you cannot have the kingdom of God." Children have this attitude of curiosity. As we get older, adults get too worried about appearing dumb. They'd rather not appear dumb than learn. When you were in school and got older and older, you learned "I don't want to raise my hand for that because everybody will look around and think I don't know the answer." It happens in Sunday School and Bible study. If you're in a Bible study and say, "I really don't understand this verse or I have no idea who Nebuchadnezzar is, but I don't want to raise my hand because what will other people think?" To grow in life, you have to have an attitude of openness and of humility. I was talking to a good friend of mine the other day. He said, "This experience I've been through is very humbling but I've learned a lot from it." That's it. Whenever we're humbled, we always learn. The Bible says, With humility comes wisdom." 3. You need enthusiasm. Colossians 3:23 says "Whatever you do, do it heartily [with all your heart] as unto the Lord and not as unto men." When you have a task, something you're going to do, put your mind to it. Be enthusiastic about it. Which classes did you learn the most from when you were in school? The ones you were the most enthusiastic about. You liked them. We learn faster when we are enthusiastic, when we participate, when we're not just spectators. We don't sit on the sidelines but we get involved. We learn faster and more when we're enthusiastic. If you want to be mentally fit you wake up in the morning with the attitude, "Lord, teach me something new today. Help me to be mentally alert. Lord, I realize that there are some tremendous experiences in life that You're going to create and design just for me today. Help me to learn from those things." Guard the access to your mind. Never stop learning.

PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS TO KEEP MENTALLY SHARP. 1. SCHEDULE SOME THINK TIME EACH WEEK. Sit down, get alone, get quiet, and think. You don't read, you don't talk, you don't listen to the radio, you don't watch TV. You just think. Nothing is easier than thinking and nothing is more difficult than serious thinking, and nothing is more rewarding than thinking under the power of the Holy Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 4:11 "Make it your ambition to be quiet." A lot of times we're just too busy to think. "I don't have time to think!" -- Have you ever thought about that? If you're a leader -- in your home, business, if you have that responsibility, you ought to be spending a minimum of ten percent of your time thinking about your job. Not working at it, but thinking about it -- how to do it better, ways to improve. Somebody said, Five percent of our world really thinks. Twenty percent of our people think they think. Seventy-five percent of our people would rather die than think -- they want all of the thinking done for them. People say, "I'm just not a creative person." Yes, you are. You just don't know it. You have tremendous potential and tremendous abilities. Everybody is creative. Everybody has a creative thought every now and

then. It's just that you don't cultivate it. You can cultivate your creativity. Howard Hendricks has a friend who's a brain surgeon in Dallas. He asked him, "In twenty years of brain surgery, have you ever seen an overused brain?" The surgeon said, "No, but I've seen a lot of underused ones." Most of us just barely tap the potential that God has given to us. We never take time to sit down and think.

2. DEVELOP A PERSONAL READING PLAN When was the last time you read a book? When was the last time you visited a library? Paul did this. 2 Timothy 4:13 Paul is in prison in Rome and he tells Timothy, "Don't forget the books and the parchment. Bring them to me, I need them. I'm going to study." Paul was making the most of his time. He was a bookaholic. Develop a reading plan. Have balance. You can literally read yourself out of a rut if you read the right things. Fill your home with good Christian literature, books and magazines, articles and things like that. I'm working on a list now that I'm going to give out -- "Fifty books I think every Christian ought to read." There are some things I think every Christian needs to have under their belt. People ask how I come up with this stuff week after week. I read constantly, several books a week, continually reading, filling my mind. I read a statistic recently that said Americans spend more money on beer than on books. No wonder our stomachs are bigger than our brains. It's what you feed and what you feed it with.

3. SPEND TIME WITH WISE PEOPLE Proverbs 13:20 "He who walks with the wise will be wise." There's the power of association. You can't fly with the eagles if you're going to run with the turkeys. You've got to get next to people who will build you up, who know about the things that you want to know about. If you want to know about the Christian life, get around some Christians who've been there for a long time. If you want to know about the skill that you need in your business, get around people who've been there. Find out spend time with them. In my life, I've had six different mentors, disciplers, people who have invested their lives into me. I spend time with these Pauls in a Paul-Timothy relationship, as they give me their insights. It's wise to learn from experience, but it's wiser to learn from the experience of others. You don't have time to make all the mistakes yourself. Spend time with wise people. Proverbs 23:19 "He who listens will be wise." Schedule think time, develop a reading plan, spend time with wise people.

4. LEARN TO ASK QUESTIONS One of my favorite verses is Proverbs 20:5. It talks about the importance of asking questions. You can learn from anybody if you just learn the right kind of questions to ask. "The purposes of a man's heart are deep water but a man of understanding draws them out." In the heart of everybody there's something you can learn, there are some insights you can use because we've all had different experiences. A lot of times they're not there on the surface, you have to draw them out -- like drawing water out of a well. How do you draw people out? How do you draw the insights you could use out of people? Ask questions. Learn to ask questions. It's a wise thing. Once a month I have what we call a Pastor's Day. We allow pastors who want to come in and study our church come in and just talk. I take about a half a day and spend time with them. It never ceases to surprise me how

some people will travel five or six hours to get to our church and then sit down and I'll say, "I'm open to any questions you'd like to ask" and they haven't really thought out what they want to ask. Draw it out of people. When I was in college I made a list of standard questions that I would ask whenever I got around somebody I thought could teach me something. Questions like, "What has been your greatest success in life?", "What has been your greatest failure in life?", "How could I learn from that?", "How do you manage your home?", "What are some things you do with your kids?", "What are the books that have changed your life?", "Who are the people who have influenced your life?", "How do you plan your time?", "How do you relax?" Make up questions that are important to you and whenever you get around somebody like that, you can ask those questions.

5. WRITE YOUR IDEAS DOWN. Hebrews 2:1 "We must pay careful attention to what we hear so that we don't let it slip." ... so that we don't drift away. The problem is we don't remember things. Every person here will have tremendous ideas throughout their life but we let them slip by. Think of all the good ideas you thought up but you don't have today because you didn't write them down. The difference between success and failure, the difference between being a high achiever and mediocre, is the management of ideas -- how you handle good ideas. Everybody has a good idea every now and then. Successful people know how to manage them. They take advantage of them. They write them down so that they don't forget them. How does this apply to your spiritual life? For thirteen years I was a Christian and my spiritual life was up and down, up and down. I'd get real close to God and then I'd backslide far away from God. I was a spiritual yo-yo. Vance Habner calls them Malaria Christians -- you get a fever, then a chill, a fever, then a chill. That's the way I was -- back and forth. Finally, I was getting seasick. I said, "Lord, I'll just live down here in the valley if I can't stay close to You." What was my problem? That I wasn't dedicated enough? That I just needed to be more committed? No. The problem was I would learn all these great truths and apply them in my life for a while but pretty soon I would forget those truths. How many of you were born with good forgetters? We forget things so easily. As a result we don't apply them. How many of you would say, "I've had to have God teach me a lesson more than once because I forgot it." You learned a lesson but then you forgot it. I've discovered that the problem in most Christian's lives is not dedication, it's retention. It's the fact that we just don't remember the things that we learned because we don't write them down. The U.S. Air Force did a study and they discovered that we forget 90-95% of everything we hear within 72 hours. That's a depressing statistic for a pastor. I work real hard to get these insights and truths from God's word and put them in a simple outline so it will be easy to remember and then I realize that by Wednesday you've already forgotten all of it except 5%. If you can't remember it, you can't work on it. That's why you need to take notes, write things down. That's why I try to provide the outlines every week because I know at least you'll take something with you. For a long time I'd sit in church and never take notes. I just sat there looking real spiritual. The pastor would throw out these little pearls of wisdom and it would come at me and bounce off. It was going in one ear and out the other. I was sitting there saying, "This is great! This is going to change my life!" Then I'd walk out the door and I'd already forgotten half of it. By Wednesday, I'd forgotten 95% of it. So I began doing something that changed my spiritual life and got me off the roller coaster. I began to keep a notebook, a spiritual journal. Everywhere I went I began to take notes and write things down so I could go back and review it. The only way you can continually keep growing is to write things down, take notes, so you don't keep forgetting it. Hebrews says pay careful attention to what you learn so you don't let it slip.

6. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF TRANSITION TIMES. There are times that you're driving to and from work, times when you're getting ready in the morning, time when you're waiting for a taco, when you're waiting in the waiting room at the doctor's office, when you're exercising -- when you're awake and alert but your mind is not in gear. You could memorize scripture. If you're sitting in an office, carry a paperback book with you. Use those spare minutes, snatch those fragments of time, make use of them. Read a book.

Listen to tapes. I think one of the greatest technological tools that Christians can use to grow is tapes. One of the best investments you can make is to put a cassette deck in your car. Just think of all of the hours that you spend driving that you could be using to listen to messages or Bible studies. They even have the Bible on tape and you could listen to that over and over while you're driving. I have taken many courses without ever leaving my car. I've taken two courses on management, one course on creativity, a course on public speaking, a course on vocabulary, all kinds of Bible studies, and I never got out of my car. Your car actually becomes a college on wheels. You get in the car and you automatically have a cassette you can use to inspire you, motivate you, train you. It used to be we had people who read a lot of books and they were bookworms. Now we have tapeworms. Take advantage of the time to keep alert. Don't just sit back, come home at night, flip on the tv and put your mind in neutral and listen to the boob tube. I found a Psalm this week called the New Twenty-third Psalm. "The TV is my shepherd My spiritual growth shall want It makes me to sit down and do nothing for His name's sake Because it presenteth so many good shows, I must see It restores my knowledge of the things of the world and keeps me from studying God's word It leads me in the paths of failing to attend worship service and doing nothing for the kingdom of God Yea, though I live to be a hundred, I shall keep on viewing my TV As long as it will work, for it is my closest companion. Its sound and its pictures, they comfort me It presenteth entertainment before me and keepeth me from doing important things with my family It fills my head with ideas which are contrary to God's word Surely, no good thing will come of my life because my TV causeth me to backslide And I shall be ashamed before Him at His coming. It used to be people said, You are what you eat. Now it's, You are what you watch. If I came over to your house tonight and said, "I want you to get your whole family in the living room. I want to entertain you. I want to tell you about five murders that I heard of, three rapes, a case of incest and all kinds of violence. Won't that be an entertaining evening?" If you put those things in a little box (the TV) all of a sudden it becomes entertainment. God, when He gave you your mind, gave you one of your greatest gifts. You are responsible to use it and develop it and keep it sharp and you have never touched the capacity of your mind. It is literally limitless in what you can do if you'll simply begin to use it and develop it and begin to think. You can develop creativity. One last warning: Can you overdo intellectual pursuit? Sure. 2 Timothy 3:7 is talking about people who learn and learn but can never know God. They never make that commitment to Him. "These people are always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth." That's a tragedy. The greatest knowledge is to know God. Paul said, "I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection." That's the important thing. When we invite Jesus Christ into our lives, "Lord, come into my heart," does He come literally into your heart? No. "Come into my spirit. Lord, put Your Spirit into my life." He comes into our minds. He gives us thoughts. When we get a thought from God we call it an inspiration. Some of you have allowed, over the years, all kinds of material into your mind indiscriminately -- things from magazines, books, shows, billboards, all kinds of things. Your mind has literally been a freeway and all things

have come zooming through it. As a result you're having problems with a habitual pattern of thinking. You just can't get a thought out of your mind. Maybe it's worry -- you're a habitual worrier. Maybe it's anger -- you tend to be an angry person. Maybe it's lust, maybe it's jealousy, or bitterness. They've done a lot of studies that show that the more television you watch the more fearful you become. It produces a fearful society. Maybe it's guilt. How do you do it? Let God give you a brainwashing. Let Him wash out the garbage and give you a clean slate to start over. Romans 12:2 (Phillips) "Let God remold your mind from within." Philippians 2:5 "Let this mind be in you which is in Christ Jesus." Put on the mind of Christ. Some of you are under a lot of stress and you think you're cracking up, going crazy. You're not balanced, you're imbalanced. 2 Timothy 1:7 "God has not given to us a spirit of fear but a Spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind." You have a right to a sound mind. Give your life to Christ. Give Him your mind, your thought life and begin to develop it the way He wants you to. Prayer: If you've never made that commitment of your life to Christ, would you do it this morning? Would you start by saying, "I want to give my mind to You, Lord. I've thought a lot of different things and not all of those thoughts were pleasing to You. Lord, I've allowed some thoughts in my mind indiscriminately that I now regret. I wish I had never read that or seen that because it haunts me." Let God remold your mind from within. Would you ask Him to just do a washing. The Bible talks about the washing of the water of the word. Then would you say, "Lord, I want to commit myself to guarding the access to my mind." It amazes me the things that parents now let their children go see at the movies. It shocks me. As if that's not going to have an effect. It will. Garbage in, garbage out. Then say, "Lord, help me to develop a lifelong learning." If you're not involved in a Bible study, get involved in one. Say, "Lord, I want to give You my life and my mind." Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your word and that it's practical and that it helps us even in these areas. We know that You've said that "as a man thinks in his heart, so is he." As we seek to be balanced in every area, help us to use the gift that You've given us -- our minds. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.